Conscious Leadership in the Workplace: A Guidebook to Making a Difference One Person at a Time

By Rosalie Chamberlain

Conscious Leadership in the Workplace is a guidebook for individuals and leaders to lead more effectively and to support and create dynamic, successful, and inclusive environments, by taking a deeper dive into the importance of addressing individual unconscious bias. Unconscious bias can impact the diversity of the workforce and the success of an organization in a global marketplace. Conscious Leadership in the Workplace gives helpful tips for leaders to consider how they currently lead, address their unconscious biases and behaviors, and transform their leadership to effectively lead themselves and others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781630476731

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I work with organizations and individuals to help them be more successful. Together, we address their goals, their dreams of developing and improving what they do, and how they can create an environment that supports and promotes the excelling of their workforce. Over the years, I’ve heard from both current leaders and from individuals within the organization who desire to lead that they want something more in their career: something more purposeful, connected and empowering to themselves and others. Sometimes, they can’t quite put their finger on what they are looking for. They feel like something is missing but they are not sure what.

I contend that what they may be looking for is work that aligns with who they are and expresses their greatest potential. They want work that is integrated into their lives in a holistic way, rather than separate, ungrounded and unaware. They want to bring more of themselves into what they do, and align their purpose, their passions, and their possibilities.

Bringing ourselves into what we do requires an awareness of self. This sounds like an obvious truism, but this is where many of us can fall short. It could be that we’ve learned a cultural lesson that work is separate and that our gut feelings, passions, reservations, inhibitions and preferences are also separate. Another possibility is that we’ve learned to make work impersonal, and as a result, we cut ourselves off from the number one driver of our success and the success of the organizations and the people we lead.

Consciousness is awareness, and awareness starts with our individual self.

Merriam-Webster defines consciousness as "the condition of being conscious; the normal state of being awake and able to understand what is happening around you; a person’s mind and thoughts; knowledge that is shared by a group of people" (emphasis added). In this book, I am going to talk specifically about awareness of self and others. When we are aware, we can know that something (such as a situation, condition or problem) exists; we feel, experience, or notice something by thoughts, sounds, sensations, intuition or emotions. We know and have a better understanding of what is happening in the world or around us. And we are more capable of effective decision-making and leadership.

By now, many of us are familiar with the term Emotional Intelligence (EQ), which is the ability to monitor and recognize our own emotions and the emotions of other people, and to use that information to guide our thinking and behavior.¹ The characteristics of EQ are Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Internal Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills. Emotional Intelligence is an essential component of conscious leadership.

Anytime you want to move toward an outcome or goal, whether it is something new or further development of what you are currently doing, you have to know where you are (and what that feels like, e.g., empowered, stuck, certain or uncertain) in order to start and identify the next steps. Chapter 1 introduces the steps for beginning to empower you to identify where you currently are and where you desire to be. Where we currently are is a more important part of the picture than many of us realize, and that is a primary focus of this book. It is about understanding what is really going on, where we want to be and how to get there.

This book is about consciousness as it relates to the individual, and more specifically, how leaders can understand the impact of consciousness and the importance of further developing a deeper awareness. We are going to look at what that entails, and how you can transform leadership in the workplace and in your life. We all lead, whether we are leading others in organizations, in our communities, associations, or in our individual lives.

I have done a significant amount of work with organizations and individuals on diversity and inclusion, and when I wanted to write a book that would further the discussion and contribute to making a difference, I knew that transformation really is a one person at a time task. An organization can check the box on a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives and programs and include the importance of diversity in its mission, and it can do quite well; however, until each individual is aware of how they impact the business, themselves and others, real change that is sustainable will continue to be a very slow process. Conscious leaders play a huge role in organizations, and can act as catalysts for growth. Conscious leaders are naturally inclusive and as a result, the organization benefits from the utilization of the rich and varied talents of the workforce. But each leader must do the work themselves to become more inclusive; leadership starts with you.

Because of the idea that each individual is so important to creating environments that are successful, high-performing and inclusive, this book is a guidebook for making a difference—one person at a time. We start with ourselves first. If we continue to address the ways we interact with our teams and with the world at large, we can become a model for others who seek to achieve their own goals. Together we will go over simple steps for bringing greater consciousness into your leadership. This book will look deeper into what being inclusive means, talk about the differences between misconceptions and reality, and what gets in the way of becoming an empowering and engaging leader working with an energized, productive team.

A word here about developing greater consciousness. It can be simple, but it is not always easy to achieve and sustain. It takes intent, commitment and practice. Consciousness is part of a lifelong journey that requires focus and awareness all the time. It is not an oh, I’ve done that and now I’ve got it type of exercise. Each person who wants change must set their intention to delve into who they are, how they show up, and why they desire transformation, if anything is going to occur. That’s why this book is for those who want more. It is for those who want to know more deeply and access their whole self. Not everyone may be interested in this type of transformation or feel they are ready to address it, and that’s fine. Those who do, agree with the business leaders and individuals I meet who want that something more than what they have right now. If this is you, then congratulations! You have taken a first step and are motivated for change. I hope that this book will inspire and guide